HOW I

the brief

HOW I is a monologue-style storytelling series created by Peace Itimi. The premise is simple: invite people from different walks of life to sit down and tell their stories. Not the polished career wins or startup origin stories, but the complicated, human stories that don't fit neatly into one category: entrepreneurship, bold life changes, preserving archival history, organising events. The show is intentionally heterogeneous, because real lives are.

When Peace approached me, HOW I was just an idea. My job was to turn that concept into something people could recognise, understand and return to.

the opportunity

I was already working as Content Lead at Founders Connect, where I'd developed an understanding of how content, brand and distribution work together. HOW I gave me the opportunity to take that thinking further. Instead of owning only the content distribution, I wanted to build the system around the show.

So I asked myself the following questions:

• What should it look like?
• What should it feel like?
• How should people experience it online?
• What would make someone follow the page between episodes?
• How would we turn a long-form conversation into an ongoing content ecosystem?

01 — building the identity

I started with researching into brand identity and visual systems, then developed a moodboard. I wanted HOW I to feel textile, old and lived-in — like something that had existed for decades despite being brand new.

This translated into:

• Red as the primary colour
• Green and warm neutrals as supporting colours
• Serif typography
• Newspaper and cut-out elements
• A visual language that balanced nostalgia with playfulness

The result was a visual identity that felt editorial and intentional without being overly polished. I documented the process publicly on X, turning the identity development itself into content. More importantly, the identity proved durable.

The visual system has remained consistent across 25 episodes and three years of the show.

02 — turning episodes into a content system

After developing the brand identity, I needed to build a system around it. The objective was to build awareness for HOW I on Instagram → create interest in the stories → drive people towards full episodes on YouTube.

So I built a system around it. For every episode, I watched the full conversation and identified moments that were emotionally resonant, unexpected or surprisingly honest, and converted them into short-form video.

Then each episode generated supporting content: reels, carousels, quotes, interactive content. The idea was to give people reasons to care about the world of HOW I.

03 — building distribution into the strategy

HOW I started from scratch. That meant we couldn't rely on an existing audience to distribute the work. I built distribution into the content strategy itself.

For each episode, I collaborated with:

• The guest's audience
• Peace's personal platform
• The Founders Connect page (occasionally)

The aim was to turn every guest into a potential distribution partner rather than treating their appearance as the end of the process.

04 — building the guest pipeline

A storytelling show is only as interesting as the people willing to tell their stories. I built a pipeline of potential guests mapped against different themes, deliberately maintaining diversity across industries, experiences and perspectives so the show wouldn't become trapped in one category. Outreach was intentionally personal.

Rather than relying exclusively on formal cold emails, I often contacted potential guests through the founder's network, Twitter or Instagram, and used the first two HOW I episodes as reference points for what the show was trying to create. I also coordinated guest availability so episodes could be batch-shot efficiently.

the results

The visual identity has also remained consistent across 25 episodes and three years, giving the show a recognisable visual world from its earliest days.

what I learned

HOW I taught me that some of the most interesting creative work happens when the brief isn't fully formed. I had to make decisions about what the brand should feel like, how its stories should travel, and what would make people care about a show they had never heard of. It also reinforced something I now believe about content strategy: that one piece of content doesn't have to carry the entire burden of distribution.

A strong idea can become a system. One episode can produce multiple entry points, each serving a different role in attracting, engaging or retaining an audience. To be honest, that's the kind of work I enjoy most: taking an idea that exists in someone's head and giving it a world people can actually experience.